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Slack Raises $160M Series E at $2.8B Valuation

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Re: Slack Raises $160M Series E at $2.8B Valuation

#31

Post by dpritchett »

SandB0x wrote: post #24

Do platforms like Slack really offer a great benefit to a business? Maybe I'm being cynical, but it seems that if you had a dysfunctional organisation then this is not a silver bullet, and if you had a well functioning organisation you would manage just fine with old fashioned tools like email and Dropbox. > Support for private groups and 1:1 direct messaging gives you complete flexibility. Private things stay privat…

It's not a silver bullet but it's definitely helped our company. We are a mostly-remote Rails-focused company with tens of people throughout the Western hemisphere. I've found my communications with clients and teammates got a lot better once we added Slack to the Google Apps + Skype setup we already had in place.

Re: Slack Raises $160M Series E at $2.8B Valuation

#32

Post by [deleted] »

SandB0x wrote: post #24

Do platforms like Slack really offer a great benefit to a business? Maybe I'm being cynical, but it seems that if you had a dysfunctional organisation then this is not a silver bullet, and if you had a well functioning organisation you would manage just fine with old fashioned tools like email and Dropbox. > Support for private groups and 1:1 direct messaging gives you complete flexibility. Private things stay privat…

[deleted]

Re: Slack Raises $160M Series E at $2.8B Valuation

#33

Post by rabino »

SandB0x wrote: post #24

Do platforms like Slack really offer a great benefit to a business? Maybe I'm being cynical, but it seems that if you had a dysfunctional organisation then this is not a silver bullet, and if you had a well functioning organisation you would manage just fine with old fashioned tools like email and Dropbox. > Support for private groups and 1:1 direct messaging gives you complete flexibility. Private things stay privat…

We have a pretty functional distributed organization and Slack has been a godsend for us. We totally love it.

Re: Slack Raises $160M Series E at $2.8B Valuation

#34

Post by bsbechtel »

jayhuang wrote: post #9

This is pretty surreal for me. I tried out Slack briefly when they first allowed the public to request accounts. Made a mental note "cool", and moved on. The next year or so I started to see a lot more teams/companies that were getting on the Slack hype-train, and now this. Huge props to the team on this valuation but I'm still quite confused.

Something about this, along with all the other absurdly high private financing rounds currently taking place seems incredibly off. As an entrepreneur, I want access to the cheapest capital I can get, but at the same time in private rounds want partners who can open doors and help break down barriers. Slack is big enough now that the second part shouldn't be an issue (same with Uber, AirBnB, etc).

Selling equity at these insane valuations isn't cheap because you're giving up only 5% of your company, it's incredibly expensive because you now need to grow insanely fast to justify these valuations to your investors. IPO'ing at a lower valuation is more expensive transaction-wise to do, but once you are a public company, you have access to the credit markets where you can sell bonds at 5-10% interest. Am I missing something else here, or is this what others are seeing too?

Re: Slack Raises $160M Series E at $2.8B Valuation

#36

Post by toomuchtodo »

SandB0x wrote: post #24

Do platforms like Slack really offer a great benefit to a business? Maybe I'm being cynical, but it seems that if you had a dysfunctional organisation then this is not a silver bullet, and if you had a well functioning organisation you would manage just fine with old fashioned tools like email and Dropbox. > Support for private groups and 1:1 direct messaging gives you complete flexibility. Private things stay privat…

Slack has been hugely helpful in the 100% remote org I work for. If you want me to go into detail, my contact info is in my profile.

In short, I live in Slack now and love it. Its an augmented reality I can share with my team, and the closest I'm getting to shared mind state without an implant in my head.

Re: Slack Raises $160M Series E at $2.8B Valuation

#37

Post by jgalt212 »

brentm wrote: post #12
dntrkv wrote: post #2

How did Slack blow up so quickly? I remember when I first read about it on TheVerge, that same morning the head of our sales team messages the CTO and suggests our company try it out. Next thing I know, every other company is using it. From my perspective, it went from nothing to huge success overnight.

It's just a great product that is viral by nature. The chat itself is nothing revolutionary but the ease of third party integrations into an everyday environment blows comparisons out of the water.

Yes, I find the seamless integration with Yo the gamechanger for me.

https://slack.com/integrations

All snark aside, the lion's share of the integrations seem geared toward technology workers.

Re: Slack Raises $160M Series E at $2.8B Valuation

#38

Post by jcruiz »

georgespencer wrote: post #8
ch4s3 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but the consensus seems to be that Atlassian ruined HipChat. I'm not sure if that's true, but everyone I know that switch lists that as a top reason.

Still using Hipchat. Seems fine.

Ever since Atlasssian started a HipChat marketing campaign in San Francisco. The servers have gone down a couple of times at least.

Dunno if there is any correlation with that. But in general it works as expected.

Re: Slack Raises $160M Series E at $2.8B Valuation

#39

Post by andreasklinger »

SandB0x wrote: post #24

Do platforms like Slack really offer a great benefit to a business? Maybe I'm being cynical, but it seems that if you had a dysfunctional organisation then this is not a silver bullet, and if you had a well functioning organisation you would manage just fine with old fashioned tools like email and Dropbox. > Support for private groups and 1:1 direct messaging gives you complete flexibility. Private things stay privat…

- Imho email doesnt scale

- it's always in silos - even if you send to multiples

- Email just creates more email.

In communication methods like slack you can communicate stuff public for people to see if they want - but dont need to

Re: Slack Raises $160M Series E at $2.8B Valuation

#40

Post by onewaystreet »

SandB0x wrote: post #24

Do platforms like Slack really offer a great benefit to a business? Maybe I'm being cynical, but it seems that if you had a dysfunctional organisation then this is not a silver bullet, and if you had a well functioning organisation you would manage just fine with old fashioned tools like email and Dropbox. > Support for private groups and 1:1 direct messaging gives you complete flexibility. Private things stay privat…

Why are you using Dropbox? Why not just use FTP? Seems kind of dysfunctional.
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